


A Magical Missive

by Clockwork



Series: Meeting Needs [1]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Arthur Conan Doyle - Freeform, F/M, Playing Games, Romance, Season 2, Sherlock Holmes - Freeform, Slow Burn, fictionals, letter writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 18:51:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12847338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: Baird receives a letter from an admirer.





	A Magical Missive

The first letter arrived two days after Flynn had tricked Prospero into leaving the library to seek something powerful enough for his staff. At first Baird hadn’t even realized it was a letter. The tome was ancient, the cover cracking and years of dust formed their own jacket around the words that had once been stamped into the surface. Twine was tied about the book to hold a slip of paper in place and there were words written in a precise script on the torn piece of linen paper.

_page 214 please_

Frowning at the note, Baird slid the twine up and over the top of the book, letting it fall to the desk. Laying the note atop the twine, she opened the book, flipping to find the appropriate page. Unlike the rest of the book, it didn’t bear the neat, precise print of the rest of the novel. A novel that she quickly recognized as the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Instead the pages appeared to have been wiped clean, and the same script as the note covered several pages.

_My Dearest Duchess,_

_I do apologize for troubling you at work, as it were, but I felt the need to send a quick missive to thank you for the last few days. While we are most certainly at opposite ends of the spectrum in Prospero’s little game, I do not wish you to believe that puts us at odds with one another._

_In truth, I have not in all of my years, fictional or otherwise, known a woman with your fiery nature and tactical brilliance. Meeting anyone that challenges me as you do is delight enough, but for that person to be one of such beauty and poise is positively titillating. If I must find a positive in being bound to Prospero and his power hungry madness it is in meeting you._

_I am certain through all of this our paths will cross again, but until then do know that I am thinking of you fondly. I hope you might be doing the same of me. At least briefly. Until then though, I will leave you with this. We all order our existence in a way which is necessary to meet our needs. As the library meets yours, so does Prospero meet mine. Neither of those are destined to last forever._

_If you wish to continue this conversation, merely write your response on the next pages and leave the book upon your desk once more. Hopefully I will speaking to you soon._

_With Much Affection,_

_Moriarty_

Somewhere in the reading, Baird had slowly dropped into the seat at her desk. She reread the letter a second time, and then a third. There was no message that she could find; nothing beyond the straightforward words put to her. Words that somehow felt intimate despite the way they were worded.

Perhaps it was because she heard those words in her own mind in that same tender yet rough voice that had certainly intrigued her before learning just who she was speaking to. Maybe it was that he had taken the time to write the letter in the same book that magic had taken him from. Whatever the reason, it felt like a love letter of sorts, and Baird wasn’t entirely certain it wasn’t. Whatever it was though, she left the book on her desk, closed and the note tucked away inside the pages.

It lay there for two days. Two days of having the librarians, minus Flynn, back together. Two days of the kind of chaos that Eve had learned she loved. The chaos of the library, of librarian bickering, and Jenkins lecturing, and all that told her that everything was right once more in her world. Except for one thing.

The book never moved, waiting. Waiting, she realized, for her. If that was the key as she assumed, then certainly all she had to do was write in the book, a pair of words that might shock Moriarty and not encourage him further. That is possibly all it would take to never hear from him again.

Sitting down, she picked up a pen from her desk. It was a basic ballpoint, nothing like the obvious fountain pen that James used in writing her. All it would take was seven letter and perhaps she would never hear from him again. 

Opening the book, she put pen to paper, not even sure what she was going to write until she did.

**Moriarty -**

**I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing now, but thank you. If the Library has done nothing else, it’s allowed me to meet those that appreciate me for who I am. Even if I’m positive there is a game to this. I’m just not sure what yet but I’m willing to find out so I’ll keep writing back.**

**Just no more bringing this to the Library. Leave the book by the door to the Annex. I’m sure you can find it yourself. Maybe.**

**With a lot of confusion -**

**Duchess**

 

Even as she wrote the words, she knew that in playing games with Moriarty, Eve was only encouraging him. 

She realized she was okay with that.


End file.
